A Personal Note From Orion

Welcome, dear listeners, to another exciting episode of the Stellar Life Podcast. This week, I had the honor of speaking with biochemist Shawn Wells about his incredible life journey and his insights on how  to optimize energy and heal chronic illness.

Shawn’s expertise is impressive. He has formulated over 1000 supplements, food, beverages, and cosmeceuticals, and holds patents for 25 novel ingredients, including Paraxanthine, Teacrine, Dynamine, and Dihydroberberine. Shawn’s background as a former chief clinical dietitian and over a decade of clinical experience, has helped him to counsel thousands of individuals seeking innovative health solutions (including keto, paleo, fasting, and supplements). His journey has been nothing short of remarkable, as he’s successfully battled the Epstein-Barr virus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, depression, insomnia, obesity, and even a pituitary tumor. His resilience and accomplishments are a testament to the extraordinary work he has put into his health and life.

Shawn courageously shares his childhood wounds, bullying, and self-hate that led to disordered eating, chronic fatigue, and autoimmunity. His raw vulnerability provides a window into the struggles so many of us face and sheds light on the path of self-love and inner healing.

Through fasting, keto, supplements, and even psychedelics, Shawn found his way back to health and wholeness. He generously provides over 10 biohacks you can start applying right away to reduce fatigue, “turn on the lights” in your cells, support mitochondria, and live with vibrant energy.

Shawn’s wisdom on self-development, finding trustworthy guides, and listening to your inner voice is so vital. I’m honored he gifted us with his hard-won knowledge.

It is my hope this discussion plants seeds of inspiration that blossom into positive change in your life. Remember your inherent worth. You are endlessly loved. So, without further ado, let’s dive into this episode with Shawn Wells and embark on a journey to peak performance and longevity! 

In This Episode

• [03:52] – Shawn Wells talks about his childhood trauma, his struggle with self-love and imposter syndrome, and how he began prioritizing healing and nurturing energy in his relationships.
• [11:52] – Shawn credits his biohacking community and experiences with helping him reach a deeper level of self-awareness and healing.
• [17:33] – Orion emphasizes the importance of consistent self-love practice and neural plasticity for lasting change.
• [22:55] – Shawn emphasizes the importance of self-development and recognizing personal triggers for growth and healing.
• [25:48] – Shawn discovers keto and paleo diets help alleviate insufficient cellular energy and autoimmune flare-ups.
• [31:37] – Orion and Shawn discuss the concept of souls choosing to be villains in life to learn lessons, with Orion expressing openness to exploring this idea.
• [36:58] – Shawn offers advice to Orion for suffering chronic fatigue and discusses the things you need to consider to diagnose anemia and sleep apnea.

Jump to Links and Resources

About Today’s Show

Hi Shawn. Welcome to the podcast. It is a pleasure having you here.

Well, thank you for having me on. I’m excited to do this with you.

I’m excited, too. Before we begin, can you please share the incredible origin story that made you the fantastic scientist you are today?

I love the origin story framing. That does feel like I am a superhero. But I think we all have our hero’s journey, especially in this space of health and wellness. There are a lot of wounded healers, and that’s very much the case for me, too. 

I came from a lot of wounding. My childhood was very chaotic. It was filled with abuse and bullying. I got into overeating, and it wasn’t long before I was at 300 pounds. The bullying was intense at that point, even from teachers, not just students. I was certainly never one to get the girl. The amount of rejection was pretty intense, and being the butt of jokes quite often was harsh. 

Then, all the things that were going on at home, too. My brothers both ran away at a younger age. There was just a lot going on for me. It got to a point where I loathed myself, hated my body, and gaslit myself so much that I got suicidal and anorexic. 

We all have a purpose to try to help others with similar wounds, but we must ensure we continue to do our own healing work. Click To Tweet

I pretty much stopped eating. I went from 300 pounds to 150 pounds at 6’3. I looked emaciated. I remember jumping on the scale every time I peed to see if I weighed just a little less. And at no point did I love myself. 

Even after that, I got orthorexic, where I was working out 4 hours a day, eating protein and all these different things, and just obsessed with supplements, which is where my interest in supplements came in. 

I was reading all the magazines, working out constantly, and thinking I was going catabolic if I didn’t have protein immediately after my workout. I needed six small meals a day, which was also an obsession. I got up to about 225 pounds and a 6-pack, but I still hated myself. 

Then, I was relentless in this hate, working hard and trying to prove myself. I was battling imposter syndrome massively. It was a brutal path where I was fighting depression every step of the way. 

Finally, I did crash. I spent about six months in bed with Epstein-Barr, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Hashimoto’s. I just couldn’t get out of bed. That’s when I discovered paleo keto fasting over 20 years ago. 

Luckily, those things helped me work my way out of bed. I started taking a lot of supplements for immune health. That was amazing. I still worked most of my life up until about 3½ years ago, hating myself. I was just really thinking that love is fleeting, that I had to achieve to earn love, and that I didn’t deserve love.

This is true of many driven entrepreneurs who come from a place of wounding like I do, especially when you’re in a hyper-masculinized world of just drive, achievement, and money. Those are the metrics you, as a man, in particular, are judged by. Like, “What do you do?”

It wasn’t until I made my first psychedelic journey on mushrooms. I expected this journey to be a way that I could get more performance so I could work even harder. I was always finding ways to work, not 60 or 80. “How about a hundred? Can I avoid sleep altogether?” 

This was my drive, and this was my passion. People like the Gary Vee of the world fed into all that: the hustle and grind. “Get up and grind.” Grind means suffering. Grind means smoke, heat, pieces breaking off, your body breaking down, and you’re just sacrificing for the someday that may never come. That doesn’t sound like a healthy recipe. 

Anyway, in my psilocybin journey, I didn’t tell anyone who I was. Usually, when I walked into rooms, I was so insecure that I had to tell people why I was valuable. I would give my whole resume of how I’ve formulated all these supplements. “I’ve patented all these ingredients. I’m a dietician. I’m a biochemist. I’m really important. You should know me.” 

I didn’t tell anyone that day who I was. I was just laid back. I was lying on this mattress or pile of blankets deep in this journey. But people were surrounding me, doing a cuddle puddle with me, caressing me. I’m someone who never really got much touch. It was so beautiful. 

I kept looking at all these people, like, “Why are they here for me?” I felt like I was guilty. I was somehow burdening them. Then I kept going deeper where it was just in the medicine, like, “No, they’re here because they love me. They love who I am, not what I achieve or what I can do.”

You can tell someone those things, but until you feel it and anchor it in your heart, it’s not real. I could rationalize what you’re saying if you told me, “Yeah, that makes sense.” But until you’ve felt it, that was the point when I knew I could have love. It wouldn’t be some escaping, fleeting, conditional love that I needed to go on a journey from here forward on being in that feminine, healing, nurturing energy to resolve many of these wounds from my childhood. 

There’s no way I could be in my true king energy, where I can truly protect and provide, where I can truly create a safe container for the feminine to play, dance, and heal, whether that’s inside of me, or with women, or those that are in the feminine around me until I heal. Otherwise, I will just be projecting that pain and hurt on others.

To that point, as I was growing in my career, I was unintentionally manipulating women, manipulating people, using my knowledge, ability, skills, and desire to be loved. But then, the hurt would come through, eventually becoming manipulative. I know I own that. It wasn’t until I started down that path about 3½ years ago that I started doing a lot of this work. 

That’s a danger with many healers, that those wounds stay present. We all have our purpose in trying to help others with similar wounds, but we must ensure we continue to do the work ourselves. The hero’s journey isn’t over. It never is. I continue to do the work, but I also enjoy it now more than ever the play.

Wow. I appreciate you diving in so deep right away and being so open and raw. This is just a pleasure to watch. I’m so proud of you. I’m just like, “Wow, I’m really proud of him.” And everything that you came from and everything that you are today, this is incredible. 

A lot of time, I come across men who are very successful, and everything’s perfect. To the outside world, it’s just like, “I’m perfect, and there is nothing bad.” It’s like a mask. It’s almost like dealing with a facade. 

Sometimes, people think that the journey is the experience and the change. But in every journey, there's an epiphany that causes ego to fade, and the unfiltered truth emerges. Click To Tweet

It’s so refreshing and surprising because I look at the man you are today, and I look at this beautiful, handsome man who is mega-successful in front of me. I would never imagine that you went through so much horror as a child. 

Do you think the psilocybin was the one that changed everything for you?

I was doing a lot of work to lead to that point. Sometimes, these things you think it’s just some pivotal, random thing. But even leading to that point, I was knee-deep in biohacking.

I just went on a trip with one of my fellow biohackers, who I love, Dr. Kayla Osterhoff. We went on a trip to Iceland and took many other biohackers on this trip. We did foraging, breathwork, Wim Hof and all this cool stuff. I feel like that was an experience. When I did Wim Hof, I experienced some incredible things. 

I did holotrophic breathwork there and experienced some things that were incredible. We did this blindfolded headphone dancing. That was really amazing, too. That was combined with breathwork. We were doing foraging, and I happened to break my phone right at the beginning of that trip. It was the best thing ever.

Obviously, it feels scary and a nightmare, but I digitally detoxed. I ended up getting super close with everyone there, close with nature and experiencing some things that I think were shifting in my soul. 

While I thought that maybe this psilocybin thing, I was telling myself, on a superficial level, that it’ll help your productivity because Dave Asprey, Ben Greenfield, Tim Ferris and all these people are doing it. It’ll give you an edge. But I think deep down, I knew I was on the edge of suicide if I kept on this path. I think something has to change. I was reaching for a lifeline, and it was that.

And do you love yourself today?

Oh, yeah. Very much.

What is self-love to you?

Speaking of the masculine and feminine energies, I now think of my childhood self, who maybe didn’t get to experience childhood in an ideal way, like Shawnee. I get to protect Shawnee, and this is like the warrior king who is strong, protects, and provides. I’m proud of that.

There’s a love there that’s a whole love, that feels good with me just being me, not being incomplete needing someone else. But also, Shawnee, which I would put more in the feminine energy, the playful energy, looks out for Shawn Wells, the biochemist in the masculinized world, of achievement and all the things. 

Shawnee is sometimes like, “Hey, you need to play. You need to chill. It’s time to get some self-care.” I think love for me is Shawn Wells loving Shawnee and Shawnee loving Shawn Wells. 

When I went through a hypnotism session with Elliot Roe, who works with some of the most elite people in the world, like all these pro poker players and all this stuff, he took me through a session. He regressed me back to a moment in my childhood when it was a very uncomfortable moment, I’ll just say. 

I was crying, and he said, “Can you kneel and give Shawnee a hug?” I was sobbing, like now in real life. I was just sobbing, going through this holding childhood Shawn that was hurt. Then he asked me, “What does Shawnee think about you?” That was the first time in my life that I gave myself that I’m proud of myself. I was like, “He’s blown away. I’ve been to 60 countries. I have a bestselling book. I have done all these things. I’ve patented 25 ingredients. I’ve formulated a thousand supplements.”

I’m very proud of all the pain, empathy, drive, and grind that got me to where I am today.

Again, I say those things like a resume on podcasts or other things, and it just feels numb inside. But at that moment when little Shawnee was looking up at me, like when you’re hoping someday to be a fireman or a policeman—and those are amazing jobs—I was just like, “You exceeded everything I could have ever dreamed of.”

I remember when I was a kid. My dream was to just go to Florida on a vacation or something. Now, I’m all over the world.

Well, if you’re ever in Florida, visit us.

I would love that. I love Florida. Likewise, if you’re ever in Texas, visit me. Not that Texas is a small place—

It seems like Texas is becoming a hub for so many incredible people. It’s very interesting.

Yeah, that’s just a beautiful moment that I was gifted from Elliot. I think up until that point, I was always looking for essentially my father’s approval in everyone. Whenever I worked, I outworked everyone by 10x everywhere I’ve ever worked. Because I always wanted to hear like, “Attaboy, good job! You crushed it.” I would do so to the detriment of my health. 

I worked in healthcare for ten years and would be there at 3 in the morning. I would be there on the weekends. I would show up for everything and anything. I was working all the holidays. I was just there. I was a machine. 

Now I realize where a lot of that comes from. And I don’t look down on my past, either. I’m very proud of all that pain, empathy, drive, and grind that it all got me. It all got me here, so that’s wonderful. I’ve learned my lessons, and I’m trying to live now with more balance and bring in that self-love.

Integration is the key piece of all of our deeper work.

I love it. I’m all about self-love. It’s a part of my journey and teaching, and I do hypnotherapy myself. I do a lot of immunotherapy sessions for myself. It’s like an onion. You peel one layer, and there’s more. Like you said, it’s a never-ending journey, but it’s getting better and more beautiful. It’s almost like coming back to who I really am every time I do that. 

I teach self-love. It’s something that I’m learning myself every day when I wake up. Some old programs sometimes come up, and the small voice is trying to drag you down. I guess with our neuro-pathways, you have to keep doing the same thing so it will stay the same. It will not change because every time you make a change, like every time I make a recording for someone, I recommend listening to it for at least 21 days. 

You cement the change in your neurology because it’s not a one-and-done. You don’t just do one journey. You don’t just take one psychedelic or one ceremony. It’s an everyday thing. It’s like going to the gym every day. It’s like brushing your teeth every day. You got to work that muscle, right?

A hundred percent. With journeys, I think people think that the journey is the experience and the change. There is often epiphany in there, where your ego is suppressed, your default mode network is turned off potentially, and you’re left with an absolute truth that’s not a reframed truth. It’s beautiful when you can experience your truth and are in a neuroplastic state where you can accept those things. 

What matters is the coming weeks, months, and years with what you do with that information. If you have your epiphany and see what’s happening in your life, you see where some of these counterproductive behaviors and actions are taking place, and then you just go back to living your normal life. This is worse than when you came to me because it’s no longer suppressed and hidden. It’s in plain sight. 

But here you are, acting and lying through your day-to-day life. That’s no good. You need to have the integration work and, importantly, integrate shadow and light, as they’re both truly a part of who we are. See the beauty in both, and recognize and acknowledge both. Most certainly, integration is the key piece of all of this deeper work, without a doubt. 

Another thing that you mentioned is this idea of the inner critic versus the inner champion. What is that voice inside you right now? For me, for a long time, it was brutal. It was gaslighting. It was, “You’re never going to be good enough.” It was always, “It figures. That’s how it is. You suck.” All this kind of stuff.

And if anyone talked like we talked to us, they wouldn’t be our friends. We need to change that voice to the inner champion. That’s the NLP side of things you’re talking about, like hypnotism. Self-hypnotism, essentially. Pre-framing and reframing is changing that voice to, like, “Yeah, there was a reason for this. The universe is always conspiring on my behalf, not working against me, conspiring on my behalf. There was a lesson here. What was the lesson? This is so exciting. There’s a new opportunity today.” 

I believe you’re in the right place and at the right time all the time. We’re just too heads down to notice it. We’re just too distracted to notice it. That right person that you could have met in line at Starbucks was there, but you were too distracted.

Right. I run a group of women that is a side thing. I’m from Israel, and my mom didn’t speak much English when she came to visit, so we created a group of 60-plus women. Now, it’s starting to grow and grow.

We need to change our voice to the inner champion.

We had a meeting, and there was this one lady there. She said something quite disrespectful and something about my age. It just felt like she was minimizing me. At that moment, I didn’t say anything. I just let it go. It really bothered me. 

I always do that. I look back, and I’m like, “What’s the gift? Why is she there?” She’s a mirror for me, like, “Where do I not respect myself?” Everybody that does something to you, there are mirrors. It’s either mirroring your shadow side, parts of you that you don’t want to look at, or some qualities that are in you that you better work on. 

If somebody disrespects me, then where do I disrespect myself, and where do I disrespect others? That’s the work. As you said, it’s all perfectly, magically orchestrated by God, the creator, for our highest and best good. So I had to look at that. 

The other gift is if I’m succeeding in this group of extremely awesome yet extremely opinionated elderly Israeli women, I can succeed in any group.

That’s awesome and so good. I’ve noticed in journeys, too, where I’m triggered because someone’s laughing too much, screaming, or distracting me, and I realize that that has nothing to do with that person and has everything to do with me. 

Now, speaking of layers of the onion, you have to sit there and say, “Why is this triggering me? Where is that coming from?” And it’s like, “Oh, it came from your childhood when this happened.” That’s where doing the work comes in. I think a lot of times, we’re just way too distracted. We don’t want to look inward. 

There’s literally a fear of, let’s say, getting into a sensory deprivation tank and just being in your thoughts for an hour. People are fearful of that. They get bored, which also can mean they’re scared. They want to just have distractions of cell phones, TVs, tablets, and laptops, things to do, and work to do. “I’m going to start cleaning. I don’t want to look inward. I don’t want to do the breathwork, the meditation, the prayer, sit in it, and be with myself.” 

Even on journeys, I see people that are scared to be by themselves. They want to just be playful and all. That’s great. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. But at some point, you have to do some deep inner work, and you’ll have to look at the shadow.

I believe you’re in the right place and time. We’re just too distracted to notice it.

And here I am, thinking I’m going to talk to you about supplements, but we got into this really fun conversation. It’s wonderful. Honestly, one of my last questions was about the mind-body connection, but obviously, you totally believe it. But was the self-development part of your healing and recovery as well?

The supplements?

The supplements and the self-development.

Self-development is a massive part of my healing journey. Emotionally, I feel like I was still a child. There’s something inherently dangerous about the violence and strength of men who are not emotionally developed.

I did a lot of damage around me as someone who was hurt and just wanted love. Doing self-development is not only a way for me to live a better life, but if I truly desire to make an impact, then I have to do that work. 

I’m always projecting out, and there’s always a trigger. There’s always a lesson, and there’s always a thing that you need to stop, pause, and say, “Why is this under my skin so much?” And it’s always because it’s a reflection of you. Having the patience with yourself to recognize those things and certainly do the work is truly important.

Supplement-wise, how did you recover? You said you discovered keto and paleo. Can you elaborate on that?

I found that I was in a state of insufficient cellular energy (ICE), which is very common. In the brain, it’s the same idea called the brain energy gap, where there’s a shortfall of mitochondrial energy, ATP (adenosine triphosphate). 

In time, that’s going to lead to a number of disease states or your body shutting down. Things like hypertonic muscles that just stay tight. Things like chronic fatigue syndrome because there’s a shortfall of energy from what’s needed. These kinds of things, fibromyalgia inflammation around the muscles, that shortfall leads to inflammation, glycation, oxidation, damage, and down a path of disease. 

I believe I was insulin-resistant essentially to some degree. Doing keto allowed me to elevate my ketones and bring that energy back in. It felt like someone was turning the lights back on from this crushing disease state. Essentially, I was in with autoimmunity.

What exactly is keto? Does that mean high protein, high fat, no sugars, and no carbs? How does it work?

It’s moderate protein, high fats, and low to no carbs. It’s essentially switching you from being a sugar or glucose burner to a ketone burner, which uses fat as that fuel. Fasting will augment that. Fasting, you get into a ketotic state as well. That was a powerful tool, too, and they work very well together.

Having the patience with yourself to recognize things and certainly do the work is truly important.

Paleo, from the aspect of a lot of the foods that I was eating, were potential inflammatory triggers. When you’re already in this insufficient cellular energy state, when you’re already in autoimmune flare-ups, there are a lot more foods that are going to be triggered because you’re already inflamed. You already have a leaky gut and a leaky brain. You already have many of these things going on that your body’s not in a state where it can heal itself. 

On a deeper level, though, to wind this back, I spent my entire life in a sympathetic nervous system state: fight, flight, or freeze. I was hypervigilant.

I’m still hypervigilant because I also had a very difficult childhood and some difficult experiences in my life, and I am very hypervigilant. But it really was awesome when I studied martial arts. I was really quick.

That’s awesome.

It does help, but it’s hard for me to relax sometimes.

Very much. I spent almost my whole life not knowing how to do that, to get into parasympathetic. That led to the lack of ATP. Essentially, my brain is always working. My body is always working. It’s always on alert. It’s always hypervigilant. It doesn’t know how to relax and repair.

In the integration of shadow and light, we find the wholeness of our being, for in acknowledging both, we embrace the beauty of our truth. Click To Tweet

I relax when I sit in meditation. “Oh, now it’s meditation. Let me go.” I’ve done it so many times I can go deep quickly, but it doesn’t translate to my everyday life, where I’m not that calm all day long. Even though I meditate, do brain tap, even though I do hypnosis, and still during the day, I have a little bit of this hypervigilant thing going on.

That’s amazing. It starts from a place of self-awareness. You’re aware of it, which is incredible. Most people are not aware of the things that I’ve told you up until this point. These are very vulnerable things, but a lot of self-awareness is happening, and that is the result of the work.

And they’re also gifts. I wouldn’t be the woman that I am. You would not be the man you are today, sitting here sharing all this incredible information and being just beautiful from the inside-out person, if you didn’t go through what you went through when you were a child.

Exactly. Maybe even another crazier step. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the short story, The Egg, on YouTube.

I heard of it.

I would encourage anyone listening to watch it. It may trigger, but then again, ask yourself why it’s triggering you because it may challenge some religious constructs. After much work in 5-MeO-DMT and some of these spirit molecules, I’ve had deeper discussions with God. 

I have found that that eight-minute movie is pretty profound. I find it very close to what I’m experiencing in that—I won’t ruin the movie—I feel like we choose this life, so there’s no one to blame. You can’t say, “Oh, this life sucks, and I got screwed over,” even if you’re handicapped, even if you were—this is going to be hard to hear—abused, even if you were maybe even raped. 

We are meant to experience the things in this life as lessons to understand humanity and God on a deeper level.

I know that’s triggering to hear, but please watch this eight-minute movie and think about how we are meant to experience the things on this earth in this life as lessons to understand humanity and God on a deeper level. That may be controversial, but I would just encourage anyone listening to watch.

I really believe that. I have a four-year-old. We love to read to him The Little Soul and the Sun. Do you know that book?

Yup.

Yeah. It’s about the soul’s journey and how some souls choose to be the villains in this world so we can learn the method. We can have an experience and then experience ourselves as gratitude, forgiveness, self-love, or whatever it is. And it’s all perfect. 

A part of me feels like we choose everything, and another feels like I live in The Truman Show. There is some script that is being written for me when it comes to synchronicities and a lot of things.

I think that’s the beautiful tapestry, where we’re all projecting on each other. At some points, we’re learning our lessons. But then, at other points, we’re the NPC (non-player character) for someone else to learn their lessons.

Do you like Dolores Cannon as well?

Oh yeah, for sure.

What I’m sure about is that there are a lot of things that I don’t even know, I don’t know. I’m open to everything. 

How often do you do psychedelics? And do you do it in a ceremony? Or how can one use that to improve their life, get aha moments, or get some healing?

You don’t want someone who is stealing your sovereignty.

When I first started, I did it about once a month because I was just going deep and exploring a new side of myself and self-discovery. But I would not say that’s a cadence you want to keep up for the rest of your life.

But also part of me as a biochemist, as a biohacker, as a dietician, as someone who is an intelligent, scientific person who wants to make an impact and help people live their best lives, I was exploring to understand it better, to do a number of these different medicines, and several different scenarios often that were triggering for me. 

By yourself?

Sometimes with a sitter or a facilitator. But certainly, it would be just me on some journeys, and then on some journeys, it was in groups as big as 25 people or more. 

There was a lot of exploration and different medicines that I used, and I wanted to know the differences. They’re all profound in their own way. I think psilocybin is a great place to start. It’s a very playful, creative, I would say, more feminine energy.

Did you start microdosing, or did you start with a full dose?

If the idea of a full dose is somehow scary to you, then probably microdosing. I liked just going right into it, but I was really with incredible facilitators. 

I think it’s very important to emphasize the environment you’re in and being around people you trust in case something happens. Even when you go to a facilitator, check their background because many fake ones out there will call themselves shamans or whatever they call themselves. You have to go with someone you trust and is recommended.

This is one of the most critical things. I would absolutely underscore what you just said, that there are people who will call themselves shamans or gurus, which is not good. You don’t want someone who is stealing your sovereignty, who is telling you that they’re more right than you, that is more brilliant than you, that knows the answers, that they are going to tell you those answers and give you what their lessons are in life. 

A good facilitator is  someone who’s asking questions, helping keep you safe, and having you guide and teach yourself. It’s super important. If you get manipulative people who are gurus, shamans, and experts, that’s not what this space is all about.

And it can take away from you energetically. You can get an opposite outcome to what you were hoping to get.

Exactly, and you have to feel safe. Let’s say if you are a woman, for example, that has been through rape, molestation, or whatever, and that’s something that you want to explore, there may be a male facilitator that’s great, that a ton of your friends have had great experiences with. But the whole idea of a man being in that space with you doesn’t resonate with you. Listen to that.

A good facilitator will be someone who’s asking questions, helping keep you safe, and having you guide yourself.

Find a female facilitator who does. Maybe a journey down the road, you’ll feel good with this guy that everyone else likes, but right now, that’s not for you. It doesn’t feel safe, so listen to yourself. That part of sovereignty is listening to yourself, not overriding that voice, and giving away your power to someone else.

Mic drop. Any area of your life, no matter if they wear white coats or not.

Exactly.

I sometimes suffer from what I feel is chronic fatigue. I just feel tired all the time. What will be your advice for me?

One, I would look at your thyroid. That’s often a culprit. You want to do a deeper thyroid test, not just a basic thyroid panel. You want to look at even things like reverse T3 and T4 ratios, all these kinds of things.

Where do you do those?

You can work through your doctor, but ultimately, you can go through Quest or one of these labs.

Another thing to look at is anemia, which has potential, especially in women.

I’m a little bit anemic. It’s called thalassemia, or it’s genetic. But usually, it doesn’t affect me.

Okay. Some things to look at are iron, copper, B12, and folic acid. 

What is copper toxicity?

Any type of metal you can have too much of. But certainly, when you don’t have enough, you could be anemic, in this case. Usually, zinc depletes copper and vice-versa.

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Also, from there, I would look at sleep quality. Some people are getting plenty of sleep, but it may not be quality sleep. You may not be getting deep, restful sleep. This is especially true with men, especially if you’re overweight, sleep on your back, or drinking before bed. These kinds of things can lead to sleep apnea. 

Sleep apnea is very dangerous. It’s not just snoring. Everyone might have a [low-frequency snore] kind of thing, and that’s okay. But that’s apnea when it’s like [duplex snore sound]. It’s very dangerous because you’re going periods of time—

You know, I was sleeping on my back because I saw this YouTube video about this lady. She completely changed her jawline by stopping sleeping on her sides. I’m sleeping on my back. I’m training myself to sleep on my back, and it’s uncomfortable.

Exactly. That jawline and your nasal pathways play a huge role in how much air you’re able to take up and how you’re breathing. As we’re chewing less in these generations, we’re getting more and more narrow jawlines. Our nasal pathways are getting more and more restricted. Our face is generally less round and wide, and it’s getting more narrow. That is actually a great point. 

But yes, absolutely, looking at your sleep quality, making sure you don’t have sleep apnea. You can do a sleep study, asking a spouse if you’re skipping, if you’re out of rhythm, if you’re gagging, coughing, or those kinds of things. It can be really dangerous. It can lead to heart attack and stroke.

Oh, my goodness.

It’s a reason that many people die. Sleep apnea is kind of a precursor to a lot of things. That’s certainly something to look at. 

Your jawline and nasal pathways play a huge role in how much air you can take up and how you’re breathing.

Then other things like just in the environment, like dander, dust, mold, all of these things. If you wake up red-eyed and feel inflamed, it can be sleep apnea. It can also be things in the environment that are allergenic triggers. Those are some things to look at. 

Then also, I would go down the path of supercharging your mitochondria. That’s where I would do some things supplement-wise. I would take PQQ and CoQ10. These are great for supporting the mitochondria. Also, polyphenols can inhibit the enzyme that breaks down NAD.

Polyphenols. Is that what the supplement is called?

No, I’ll get into which ones are, but those inhibit the breakdown of NAD, which is important to make ATP on the mitochondrial level. Some of the great ones are quercetin, fisetin, and apigenin. Those are all wonderful ones to get. 

From there, I like taking niacin or NMN. Those are both going to boost NAD levels. Also, you can just get an IV of NAD. It’s quite expensive, and it doesn’t feel that great. You tend to get nauseous over the hour or two that it takes.

Fantastic. They are expensive and nauseous together.

Exactly. Those are some things that I would look at. Then, there’s an interesting new vitamin. It’s going to potentially be a new vitamin. We don’t make it. It’s found in the diet. There’s a deficiency when you don’t take it. It could be the next new vitamin. It’s being researched as such, and it’s called ergothioneine. Ergothioneine protects the mitochondria. 

The last one that I would say is spermidine. This is another new one in anti-aging. Yes, I am saying spermidine. People always ask. Yes, it is in sperm. So I’ll get that out of the way.

They extract it from sperm?

Spermidine is a mimic for fasting and increases autophagy.

No, but it is present in sperm. That’s where they first found it. It can either be made synthetically, or it can be found in wheat germ. Spermidine is a mimic for fasting and increases autophagy. Autophagy is cellular detox and cleanup. So that’s really cool. 

Those are some ones that I would look at. Then certainly, try fasting, the ketogenic diet and a paleo diet, cleaning up your diet, getting rid of those allergenic triggers, and getting on a low carbohydrate diet. If you’re metabolically dysfunctional, it can feel like it’s turning the lights on. Then, fasting will augment that ketogenic diet and help with the autophagy portion, detoxing and cleaning your cells.

Wow. Thank you for all those amazing tips. I’ll check out those supplements. This was fantastic, and I feel like I need at least ten more hours with you just to learn a little more. Let’s do it.Let’s make a journey together.

Where can people find you, get your book, and learn from you?

My book is The Energy Formula, and it’s at energyformula.com. You can find me @shawnwells on pretty much all the social media. I have a lot of great content on Instagram, with videos breaking down anti-aging stacks, depression stacks, ADHD stacks, you name it. Certainly, we are looking at diets, biohacking devices, and all the cool things. 

Fantastic. Shawn, thank you so much. I really appreciate you.

Thank you for having me on.

And thank you, listeners. Remember to take care of yourself, change your diet if you’re feeling inflamed, take all the supplements mentioned on this podcast and have a beautiful day, night, wherever you are. This is Orion till next time.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓}Nourish your body. Pay attention to your physical health. Keeping balanced nutrition and avoiding extreme measures highlights the importance of being mindful of your body.

{✓}Avoid the “grind” culture. Reconsider the idea of constantly grinding and sacrificing for success. Relentless work and imposter syndrome are stark reminders that it’s essential to find a balance and not define your worth solely by your achievements.

{✓}Transform your inner critic into an inner champion. Reframe your mindset to change negative self-talk into positive self-affirmations.

{✓}Reflect on your triggers. When someone triggers or disrespects you, look within to understand why it bothers you. There is often a lesson or a mirror to your own internal struggles.

{✓}Explore the power of supplements. Supplements can play a crucial role in health and healing, especially when addressing issues related to cellular energy, inflammation, and autoimmune conditions.

{✓}Understand how your emotional state and stress levels can impact your health. Learning to shift from a sympathetic nervous system state to a parasympathetic state is vital for overall well-being.

{✓}Explore various avenues to deal with chronic fatigue, including checking your thyroid health with a comprehensive thyroid test. Also, assess for anemia and investigate environmental factors that may be affecting your sleep quality.

{✓}Support your mitochondria through supplements like PQQ, CoQ10, polyphenols, and niacin or NMN. These compounds can help enhance your energy production and vitality.

{✓}Optimize your diet. Experiment with dietary approaches like fasting, the ketogenic, and the paleo diet to enhance your metabolic function and energy levels.

{✓}Connect with Shawn Wells for more insights and information through his book, “The Energy Formula,” and follow him on social media @shawnwells for valuable content related to anti-aging, biohacking, and more.

Links and Resources

Connect with Shawn Wells

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Previous Stellar Life Episodes

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About Shawn Wells

Shawn Wells MPH, LDN, RD, CISSN, FISSN is the world’s leading nutritional biochemist and expert on health optimization.

He has formulated over 1000 supplements, food, beverages, and cosmeceuticals and patented 25 novel ingredients, including Paraxanthine, Teacrine, Dynamine and Dihydroberberine and is now known as the Ingredientologist – the scientist of ingredients. Formerly a Chief Clinical Dietitian with over a decade of clinical experience, he has counseled thousands of people on innovative health solutions such as keto, paleo, fasting, and supplements. He has also overcome various health issues, including Epstein-Barr Virus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, depression, insomnia, obesity, and a pituitary tumor.

As a world-renowned thought leader on mitochondrial health, he has been paid to speak on five continents. His insights have been prominently featured in documentaries such as Psychedelics Revealed and Supplements Revealed and podcasts like Ben Greenfield, as well as regularly on morning television. His expertise can help any health-conscious individual to better manage stress and experience greater resilience and more energy through utilizing his practical research-backed solutions.

His book, “The ENERGY Formula,” has been recognized by both USA Today and Forbes as well as an Amazon best-seller in multiple categories.

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